Monday, October 7, 2013

After painting the metal bench I showed you last month, I decided next to paint our dressers. We have had our bedroom furniture for over 15 years...and it was hand-me-down back then. I have never really liked it, but didn't know what I wanted instead...plus getting new furniture is expensive!

Here's a pic of the before of my husband's dresser:

I had thought about painting it before, but the high gloss cherry finish had me nervous. It seemed like it was going to be a ton of work sanding it down and prepping it even before getting the paint out!

What motivated me to get started was a good friend of mine. I was showing her around our house. When we got to our bedroom she said, "this room is not you". I want to be clear that this did not offend me at all! She was totally right and I am thankful for her words because they got me to do something about it! She was the motivation I needed.

I had heard about Milk Paint from Miss Mustard Seed Blog (missmustardseed.com) and loved that look that it gave to the furniture she featured. I watched some of her how to videos and when I realized I didn't need to sand the dresser, I was sold! I ordered some of the paint online and chose Shutter Gray.

I quickly wiped down our dressers and removed all the hardware. I ended up taking out the middle piece that looks like a keyhole and filling in the holes with wood putty...I wanted to try to simplify the look of the dresser.

After removing all the drawers I was ready to paint. I followed the instructions for the milk paint which included adding a primer to the first coat. Then I used a paint brush and started painting.

The first coat looks, um, terrible. Don't freak out! It gets so much better!

It didn't take long to paint the dresser and all the drawers and I gave them 2 coats and went over a couple spots a 3rd time. After letting it dry for a bit I got some sandpaper and rubbed off some of the paint in spots where I thought the piece would naturally wear.

For the hardware I considered buying new handles until I saw the prices! A can of metallic spray paint did the job for just a couple bucks.

While the hardware dried, I did a coat of wax over the paint on the dresser. This protects and seals the paint. It's super easy and gives the surface a smooth finish.

Then I just had to put the hardware back on and slide in the drawers...and I was finished! I was so happy with how it turned out. I am guessing that all together it only took 3 or 4 hours to complete each dresser (I did them on 2 different days).

Here's both of our dressers completed. I did my dresser in blue for a little bit of contrast. (And yes, we have a ginormous t.v. in our bedroom!).

I was super impressed with Miss Mustard Seed's Milk Paint. I love the way the paint looks on our furniture and it was so easy to work with. Did I mention it was low VOC? Even better!

Next time I will show you how I painted my husband's night stand...and what I found behind the drawers! Hope you are enjoying these little projects!